On Wheeler's "Ten-to-One" Plan
Author: Gong Linmu
After months of struggle, the great cause of peace on Wheeler is in sight. Forty percent of its territory has declared permanent ceasefire, and over seven million warlord troops have been disbanded and returned to civilian life. It is foreseeable that the area of peaceful regions will continue to expand in the future, until the entire planet of Wheeler is unified in peace.
The war is over. Mr. Jiang Ye waved his hand and announced the implementation of the "Ten-to-One Plan." The plan is simple:
Within the next year, double the income of the people in Wheeler's ceasefire zones.
Within the next ten years, increase the income of the people in Wheeler's ceasefire zones tenfold.
In other words, this is a plan to make the people of Wheeler prosperous, a large-scale wealth creation movement.
Dark clouds have already covered Wheeler's sky, and thunder rumbles faintly. But what is about to fall is not rain, but shining gold.
To understand how to become rich in the future, one must first understand why they were poor in the past.
Wheeler's long-term poverty is mainly due to five reasons.
The first major reason is direct consumption by war.
You want a decent house. You save diligently, work hard, save for years, and finally move into a new home.
But one day, warlords suddenly attack. A single mortar shell costing five hundred yuan landing on your roof can destroy the entire house.
Building a prosperous city takes a long time and requires huge financial investment, but with the fall of a bomb, it is instantly reduced to nothing.
In Wheeler's protracted war, countless generations of hard-earned wealth have been suddenly evaporated by artillery fire.
How can one not be poor when years of wealth are repeatedly wiped out overnight?
But now, the warlords in many areas of Wheeler have disbanded, and permanent ceasefire is in effect. Wealth can now be accumulated gradually without the fear of it being wiped out overnight.
Imagine, if Wheeler had not suffered war consumption in the past few decades, how many prosperous cities could have been built today?
The second major reason is trade monopoly.
Wheeler's industrial and technological level is backward, its production and transportation chains are difficult to establish, and its knowledge and talent reserves are insufficient. Therefore, a large number of goods cannot be produced and must rely on imports from other planets.
Even some basic raw materials, such as metal ores, cannot be reliably mined due to war and must be imported.
Wheeler's people are sitting on rich mineral deposits, yet they have to buy foreign ores at high prices, like people starving to death while guarding a granary.
Most critically, Wheeler is not a member of the Galactic Empire and has not established diplomatic relations with other planets, making stable foreign trade impossible.
Therefore, they can only rely on one type of person for foreign trade: interstellar smugglers.
The credibility of interstellar smugglers cannot be guaranteed. They are themselves madmen who disregard interstellar law, and many interstellar smugglers commit crimes so severe that they face the death penalty if caught.
Consequently, with foreign trade monopolized by such individuals, Wheeler faces a flood of counterfeit goods, delayed deliveries, price gouging, and trade fraud.
For example, a textile production line costs only 1.2 million on another planet, but smugglers sell it to Wheeler for 27 million.
When the production line breaks down, there is no after-sales service. Hiring an engineer from another planet to repair it costs 1.5 million, and that's just for labor, not including replacement parts.
And the same repair service is provided for free by the original manufacturers on other planets.
These inflated profits are pocketed by interstellar smugglers, and the extra money spent is passed on to Wheeler's consumers. The same piece of clothing costs Wheeler's people ten times more to buy.
Over half of Wheeler's overall economic profit is taken by interstellar smugglers.
This money should have been earned by the people of Wheeler, but it is earned by aliens. Wheeler's people work hard, only to end up working for aliens. How can they not be poor?
Some economists call interstellar smugglers parasites. They cling to Wheeler's intestines, sucking blood every day. The food Wheeler eats is absorbed by these parasites, leaving Wheeler thin and pale, while the parasites grow fat and bloated.
But now, Mr. Jiang Ye is preparing to personally negotiate with commercial associations of major planets to include Wheeler in the Galactic commercial map.
The monopoly will be broken, and the people of Wheeler will have access to the commercial markets of countless planets.
In the past, Wheeler's people begged interstellar smugglers. From now on, the roles will be reversed, with merchants from various planets competing on price to win over Wheeler's people.
Wheeler will be able to obtain cheap raw materials and technology, keeping the huge profits previously taken by aliens within the country. The parasites can no longer suck blood, and the host will naturally regain its healthy complexion.
The third major reason is the military-industrial complex.
Some may see this reason and think it repeats the first one.
It does not repeat. The first point discusses the direct consumption of social wealth by war, while this point discusses the distortion of the economic structure that hinders economic development.
Almost all warlord regions in Wheeler are military-industrial complexes.
Warlords desire to expand their territory, armies crave war to obtain more military funding, and regional industries desperately produce military supplies and weapons. The entire society's wealth is highly tied to war.
The military-industrial complex model cannot be simply judged as good or bad; it depends on the specific situation.
If successful in outward expansion, continuous victories in war, and continuous acquisition of resources through aggression, then the military-industrial complex is actually a highly profitable model that can bring in vast sums of money.
Many planets in the galaxy operate on a military-industrial complex model, their wealth growing year after year by constantly conquering new planets.
However, Wheeler's situation is different. Wheeler lacks the ability for outward expansion.
Planets within the galaxy are already occupied by the Galactic Empire, and Wheeler's spaceflight capabilities are insufficient to reach unclaimed planets outside the galaxy.
Therefore, the military-industrial complex in Wheeler is merely a model of constant internal attrition.
It cannot create more wealth, leads to a futile arms race, where its own people compete against each other, depleting resources together, and thus becoming poorer and poorer.
Mr. Jiang Ye plans to implement economic reforms on Wheeler, dismantling the military-industrial complex model and redirecting productivity and social resources to wealth-creating industries, such as light industry and agriculture.
The shift is from a model of mutual competition and shared poverty to a model of mutual assistance and shared prosperity.
The fourth major reason is technological backwardness.
Science and technology are the primary productive forces, yet Wheeler's technologies in all aspects are extremely primitive.
For example, energy. Wheeler heavily relies on coal and hydroelectric power.
To generate a million kilowatt-hours of electricity, Wheeler burns 2 million tons of coal, consumes vast amounts of manpower and transportation, severely pollutes the environment, and the direct cost is 1.6 billion yuan.
Biron Planet uses nuclear fusion power plants, half a ton of fusion fuel, with extremely low pollution, costing only fifty million. Jiang Ye Planet uses dark matter power plants, 20 tons of dark hydrogen, costing ten million. Exile Planet uses artificial element power plants, costing fifteen million, and the byproduct of electricity generation is gold; the more electricity generated, the more gold drops.
We can see that in electricity generation alone, the difference in cost between advanced and backward technology is over a hundredfold.